1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of displaying a two-dimensional color image data having a predetermined bit depth and forming and displaying animation data.
2. Description of the Related Art
There has been developed a graphic computer application that enables displaying, for example, a two-dimensional color image data formed from photographic data, and enlarging or contracting all or part of the image data as a part of desired image processing of the picture image data.
Such graphic application when used allows the user to enlarge or contract a specified domain of the given image as desired in the course of editing the image. Such graphic application, however, cannot provide an arbitrary new view point, away from the original view point, for observing the displayed scenery or photo-image. In order to provide an application that enables changing view points, it is necessary to prepare a multiplicity of pictures taken at the different view points, so that one of them may be chosen by the application, This is not applicable, therefore, to a case where such multiplicity of pictures at different view points are not obtainable.
The present invention is directed to solve such a problem as discussed above. It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide a method of displaying different two-dimensional image data such as a photograph which represent different views as viewed by a virtual observer standing at a given observation at different view points.
An example of data formats capable of processing animation pictures is AVI distributed by Microsoft Corporation. In AVI format, the size of a file often disadvantageously becomes 100 MB, for example, so that a large memory is required to preserve such animated data file. AVI is also disadvantageously requires a very long transmission time, and hence a high communication cost, when the file is transferred by the Internet.
It is also an object of the present invention to overcome such problem by providing a method of forming an animation picture having a small data size.
It is, moreover, a further object of the invention to provide a method of displaying such animated pictures.
There is provided in accordance with one aspect of the invention a method of displaying two-dimensional color picture data having a predetermined bit depth, comprising the steps of:
initially displaying the two-dimensional color picture data on a display window;
modifying the picture into a new picture by magnifying/contracting the picture by a factor in accordance with the forward/backward displacement of the virtual view point of a viewer looking at the picture; and
updating the two-dimensional picture data by the data of the new picture.
In another aspect of the invention, there is provided a method of displaying on a display two-dimensional color picture data having a predetermined bit depth, comprising the steps of:
initially displaying the two-dimensional color picture on a display window;
magnifying portions of the picture closer to the center of the picture by a smaller magnification factor than portions farther from the center as the virtual view point of the viewer looking at the picture undergoes a displacement; and
updating the two-dimensional color picture data of the magnified picture. The picture data, and hence, the picture may be updated for the displacement in units of a given amount of displacement.
In still another aspect of the invention, there is provided a method of displaying on a display two-dimensional color picture data having a predetermined bit depth, comprising the steps of:
initially displaying the two-dimensional color picture data on a display window;
magnifying portions of the picture closer to the center of the picture by a smaller magnification factor than portions farther from the center as the virtual view point of the viewer looking at the picture undergoes a displacement; and
updating the two-dimensional picture data by the data of the magnified picture.
In this mode of the invention, the two-dimensional color image data can be a photograph, in which the center of the picture corresponds to the position of the camera that took the picture. Alternatively, the two-dimensional color image data can be an illustration constructed by a perspective drawing technique, with the center of the picture corresponding to the point of convergence in the perspective drawing (which point is defined to be the infinitely remote point on which any two horizontally parallel lines converge, and will be hereinafter referred to as the perspective point).
In a further aspect of the invention, there is provided a method of displaying two-dimensional color picture data having a predetermined bit depth, comprising the steps of:
setting up a multiplicity of ordered and arbitrarily separated virtual view points looking at the picture displayed on a display window;
entering a number of ordered moving frames and a number of ordered halt frames in association with each view point;
dividing each of the paths connecting two ordered view points by the number of the moving frames;
setting a multiplicity of temporary view points, one for each divisional point, along the path;
constructing a picture from the two-dimensional picture by magnifying portions of the picture closer to the center of the picture by a smaller magnification factor than portions farther from the center, the magnified picture forming as a frame picture for the temporary view point; and
displaying the frame pictures in the order of the associated view points and in the order of the associated temporary view points,
wherein each of the pictures associated with the view points are repeatedly displayed at the associated view point as many times as the number of halt frames.
In this case, each magnification factor at each of the view points may be arbitrarily set at the time the temporary view points are set, and may be stored in a view point information data file.
In a still further aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of constructing an animation picture for given two-dimensional color picture data having a predetermined bit depth, comprising the septs of creating a tracing information file which includes:
setting up a multiplicity of ordered and arbitrarily separated virtual view points looking at the picture displayed on a display window;
setting a magnification mode of magnifying the picture for each of the view points;
constructing a transfer frame for cutting out a portion of the picture displayed on the display window in accordance with the magnification mode, the transfer frame defined by the coordinates of a rectangular frame formed on the display window;
entering a number of ordered moving frames and a number of ordered halt frames in association with each view point;
dividing each of the paths connecting two ordered view points by the number of the moving frames;
setting a multiplicity of temporary view points, one for each of the divisional points along the path divided;
arranging the number of halt frames and the coordinates of the view points and the temporary view points, and the coordinates of the transfer frames in the order of the view points and temporary view points, thereby forming a time series of the pictures forming, when displayed, animation of the two-dimensional picture; and
constructing an animation picture from the two-dimensional picture data and the tracing information file.
In this method, a picture may be constructed from the two-dimensional picture displayed on the picture window for each temporary view point and the view points by cutting out a section of the picture on the display window by means of the transfer frame associated with the temporary view point/view point;
the cut picture may be magnified such that portions of the cut picture closer to the center thereof is magnified by a smaller magnification factor than portions farther from the center thereof, the magnified picture forming a frame picture for that temporary view point; and
the picture data may be displayed on a display in accordance with the tracing information at a predetermined time interval.